For Immediate Release:
January 25, 2023

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

San Francisco – PETA sent a letter to District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen today, asking that she further San Francisco’s legacy as a vegan-friendly city by changing the name of Wool Street to Vegan Wool Street. If Ronen and the mayor agree to the name change—whether it lasts “a week, a month, or forever”—PETA will happily pay for the new signage and donate 10 beautiful vegan wool coats for the city to distribute as it sees fit.

“Today, more and more people realize that, like human beings, sheep feel joy, pain, and fear and deserve not to be treated as wool-producing machines who end their lives as chops,” writes PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “With PETA’s simple name change, San Francisco could remind everyone that it’s easy to stay warm and be warmhearted to sheep by choosing vegan wool.”

Sheep are able to recognize other sheep and even humans from photographs and devise ways to overcome obstacles. Yet, as revealed in 14 exposés, PETA entities have documented cruelty to sheep at wool operations worldwide. Even on “sustainable” and glaringly irresponsible “responsible” farms, workers can be seen beating, stomping on, cutting open, and slitting the throats of sheep who are scared and struggling as they are shorn. Many top retailers offer natural, eco- and animal-friendly vegan wool made from cotton, linen, Tencel, modal, and other materials.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Ronen follows.

January 25, 2023

Hillary Ronen
District 9 Supervisor

Dear Ms. Ronen:

Happy New Year! I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally—with a timely suggestion that would make San Francisco, one of our favorite towns, even more animal-friendly. Would you please make a powerful statement for animals of all sheeps and sizes by introducing a resolution to change the name of Wool Street to Vegan Wool Street? It could be for a week, a month, or forever—but just as when Hot Springs, New Mexico, renamed itself Truth or Consequences, it would garner positive media coverage, make people smile, and offer everyone a chance to learn about the benefits of vegan wool!

You herd it here: Sheep are highly intelligent, unique individuals who, like all of us, feel happiness, joy, pain, fear, and loneliness and value their friends, family, and lives. Did you know that sheep can distinguish between different expressions in humans and can detect changes in the faces of anxious sheep? Or that, like dogs, some sheep wag their tail when they get excited? They form deep and lasting bonds with each other, stick up for one another in fights, and grieve if they lose a friend. But often, they’re treated as nothing more than wool-producing machines. Every single one of PETA’s exposés of the global wool industry—including over 100 wool operations on four continents—has revealed that sheep are subjected to severe, systemic abuse. Workers have been caught on video purposely injuring them, sometimes fatally. When they’re no longer profitable, you know where they go—to the slaughterhouse.

Unlike wool stolen from sheep, vegan wool is good for animals and the environmentvegan wool jacketsrganic cotton, linen, seaweed, wood, hemp, soybeans, and coconut fiber are just a few natural, innovative, animal-friendly materials that make wonderful fabrics.

With this simple name change, San Francisco could remind everyone that it’s easy to stay warm and be warmhearted to sheep by choosing vegan wool and other animal-free materials. We’d be happy to pay the cost of new signage if you agree, and we’d give you 10 fabulous vegan wool coats to distribute as you see fit. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from ewe.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk
President

cc:       The Honorable London Breed, Mayor of San Francisco

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